Using Audition with After Effects

As you can see from recent articles on PVC, Adobe is anxious to make you aware that they have made their audio editing application Audition available for the Mac as well as Windows, and bundled it into the Production Premium and Master Collection suites.

While their focus is on showing editors how to take advantage of Audition, our orientation is motion graphics and visual effects - therefore, we’re personally more interested in integration with After Effects. Although nowhere near as robust as Audition’s integration with Premiere Pro, there are still some nice synergies to be had. That’s why as part of our New Creative Techniques videos we created for After Effects CS5.5, we included two on using Audition with After Effects - both for absolute newbies looking to add some audio special effects to those wanting to dive a little deeper and improve their voiceovers. In case you missed them as part of our After Effects CS5.5 review, here they are again for your viewing pleasure:

After Effects Apprentice: Type and Music

As we mentioned earlier, we’re in the process of recording our book After Effects Apprentice as a series of training videos, where you get to look over our shoulders and hear what we’re thinking as we work through each lesson. Our latest installment is the lesson on Type and Music.

One of the cornerstones of motion graphics is creating and animating type. In this course, Trish will show you how to typeset titles professionally and create your own custom animations, as well as apply and modify the hundreds of text animation presets that After Effects ships with. Additionally, Chris will show you how to add audio to your projects, including spotting “hit points” to align your keyframes and video action.

Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects CS5.5

You may remember our blog post on the “inherent” problems with stereoscopic 3D that famed film editor Walter Murch pointed out in an open letter to film critic Roger Ebert. We took Murch’s comments as inspiration to explore workflows in the latest release of After Effects that might work around some of Murch’s concerns: Namely, getting the eyes and brain to converge and focus on the same object (preferably one the same distance from the viewer as the screen).

Updated: Adobe Warp Stabilizer (P)Review

As noted earlier this week, Adobe TV posted a video - attached to the top of this post - that previews a new technology called the Warp Stabilizer. I’ve had a chance to work with a pre-release version of the Warp Stabilizer, and Adobe kindly gave me permission to pass along some of my experiences.

After Effects Apprentice: Creating Transparency

We’re often asked: What’s the difference between editing and motion graphics?

Although there’s always exceptions to every rule, one way to distinguish between them is the way a project is built: Editing projects tend to be arranged horizontally, cutting between different scenes over time; motion graphics projects quite often are arranged vertically, with multiple elements - including footage, text, and other graphics - appearing on screen at the same time.

The logical next question is: How do you see through one layer to the other elements underneath? This is something we’ve written a lot of articles and recorded a lot of videos about, including our most recently released courses on lynda.com. Sounds like a good time for a quick reference to them all.

In Appreciation Of The Lowly Wipe

While editing Michele Yamazaki’s upcoming book on After Effects plug-ins, she reminded us of the classic, then-revolutionary video Cry by the English singer/songwriter/music video producer duo of Lol Creme and Kevin Godley. Created prior to the days of morphing software, it pushed the limits of what could be done with soft-edge wipes between carefully aligned shots, dropping more than one jaw as a result. (Yes, today’s more sophisticated eyes will pick apart the flaws - but keep in mind this was all done in analog, over 25 years ago.)

Expert Tips on Final Cut Pro

Ever watch someone use (or even worse, demonstrate) a piece of software, and think to yourself “wait a minute - that’s not how you should do that…”? Then Rob Imbs of Lovely Junkie has a video for you. Rob has compiled what is no doubt years of hard-won Final Cut experience and “knowledge” into one tip-laden video of just about everything a beginner can do wrong. With a straight face. (Until the very end.) Watch it and weep. Then pass it along to an unsuspecting Final Cut Friend.

American Editor

More than one person has pointed me toward the relatively new blog American Editor, written by Rob Ashe: Senior Video Editor & Opening Title Designer of Conan O’Brien’s most recent ventures among other items on a long resume. Rob is a straight shooter with a wry sense of humor, who dishes up some honest opinions and advice on working in The Industry.

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